Education: Teachers for EthiopiaMonday, Aug. 07, 1944

Last week His Imperial Highness, Haile Selassie, King of Kings and Lion of

Judah, celebrated his 52nd birthday and faced a grave educational problem.

Ethiopian illiteracy is rampant. While his country was under the Italian heel,

every educated Ethiopian that could be found was systematically exterminated.

For six years not an Ethiopian child was allowed to go to school.

In a population of 12,000,000 only about 5,000 children can now be

accommodated in school. (Some 400 get Boy Scout training.) Ethiopia needs

school buildings, it needs textbooks, but most of all it needs teachers.

The Ethiopian Minister to the U.S., His Excellency Blatta Ephrem Tewelde

Medhen, thinks he can find the teachers. His idea is to import U.S. Negroes to

replace the slaughtered teachers of Ethiopia. The National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People favors the proposal, points out that many U.S.

Negroes have gone to Liberia to teach.

Teachers who go to Ethiopia will find a healthful climate (most of Ethiopia is a

high plateau), a great affection for the U.S.—and a tough language, Amharic.

But an attempt is under way to reduce" its 200 odd characters to 90, make

typewriters feasible. English, taught in the few schools which Ethiopia still

possesses, has already replaced French as a second language.